Recent decades have witnessed a growing trend towards regional economic integration. As of February 2016, some 625 notifications of regional trade agreements had been received by the WTO and of these, 419 were in force. But South Asia is still lagging behind. It remains the least integrated region in the world. South Asia hosts about 21 per cent of the world’s population. It is made up of countries with deep cultural and historic ties, but intra-regional trade accounts for just 5 per cent of total trade. By comparison intra-regional trade makes up 25 per cent of ASEAN’s total trade.

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Topics: ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS (ASEAN) FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT (FDI) REGIONAL INTEGRATION SOUTH ASIAN ASSOCIATION FOR REGIONAL COOPERATION (SAARC)

Regions: SOUTHEAST ASIA

Authors: EAST ASIA FORUM